SBI Group is a financial services company group based in Tokyo. The group’s businesses and companies are held primarily at SBI Holdings. The group also operates SBI Graduate School, a business school, and a children charity foundation. SBI is listed on the first section of the Osaka Securities Exchange and Tokyo Stock Exchange

The group’s SBI Virtual Currencies was launched in beta on January 30. It is among the first group of companies to apply for and receive Japan’s digital currency exchange license in November 2017. SBI VC aims to provide a reliable exchange for both institutional customers and individual digital asset buyers in Japan.

Ripple claims that XRP’s strong institutional use case and scalability (1,500 transactions per second), along with its growing demand in Japan, made it a “natural fit” for the launch. Ripple’s xRapid enables payment providers and financial enterprises to justify on liquidity cost and customer experience. SBI VC will also associate with the xRapid ecosystem to help institutions source liquidity for cross-border payments between Japan and the rest of the world.

Patrick Griffin, Ripple’s senior vice president of business development, believes that the partnership with SBI VC is another step toward reaching Ripple’s mission of establishing an Internet of Value, where money can move as freely as information.

“Today’s decision to make XRP the primary digital asset of SBI Virtual Currencies shows the utility, efficiency, and scalability respected financial institutions around the world see in XRP,” said Griffin. “This is a critical step forward in our mission to build XRP liquidity and build an Internet of Value.”